Science park installs industry-leading Tesla battery

Manchester Science Park has purchased the most advanced commercial energy storage solution currently available to help it use renewable energy and avoid high energy tariffs.

The £400,000 investment by park operator Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP) includes the installation of a Tesla Powerpack system outside its Bright Building headquarters.

The move will help insulate MSP from shifting commercial tariffs andescalating non-commodity prices, while also allowing it to substantially reduce its carbon footprint by helping it to use more renewable energy.

The Tesla battery can kick-in in less than a second, providing “unrivalled” resilience for the park’s tenants. It is also scalable, with the four-powerpack system able to have up to 16 additional power packs added to it in future.

‘Energy island’

Tom Renn, managing director of MSP, said: “We have bold plans to harness the opportunities provided by advanced energy. We envisage that within 12 months, the Bright Building will be an energy island - self-sufficient and operating without reliance on the National Grid.”

Property developer and majority shareholder of MSP, Bruntwood, said that commercial energy storage was now viable and it is planning to install further units at its other buildings and developments.

Green finance

The investment at Manchester Science Park is part of an ‘advanced energy strategy’ to comply with a three-yeargreen financepackage with Lloyds Bank.

Under the terms of its loan, MSP has agreed to a series of ‘green covenants’, including: spending more than £600,000 in sustainable improvements to its campuses; reducing the energy intensity of all its assets by 3.5 percent per year; and increasing the amount of renewable energy its buildings use by a further 10 percent.

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